A coalition of First Nations are calling on the Premier to mandate Health Minister Adrian Dix and newly appointed Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Murray Rankin to collaborate in creating information sharing protocols with First Nations.
The Heiltsuk Nation, Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council and Tsilhqot’in National Government, supported by a growing number of nations, have been requesting Covid-19 information from the government since May 2020.
Some of the data requested includes:
location of proximate, presumptive and confirmed Covid cases near their communities, whether the proximate case involves a person that has travelled to one of the Nation’s territories within the last 14 days; as well as the name of a person infected by Covid who is a member of the Nations. The information is to be used for culturally-safe contact-tracing.
In September of this year the Nations filed a complaint with the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner to compel the Ministry to disclose information.
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